Supplies Minister assures of government’s seriousness regarding price determination

Kathmandu: The lawmakers in the National Assembly have wondered how could the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the state-owned petroleum supplier, give bonus to its employees when it is said that it was incurring losses.

The lawmakers expressed this in course of discussions centring on the statement made by Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu in the Upper House meeting on Wednesday. “If the NOC is in loss, then how come its employees have been enjoying bonuses,” asked Sumitra BC.

Devendra Dahal suggested the government bring immediate plans targeting students and people living below the poverty line for providing relief from the fuel price hike rather than bringing long-term policy to cope with the price rise.

Anita Devkota demanded that the government should provide tax concessions to people as relief from the price hike. Prakash Pantha urged the government itself to provide electric cooking stoves at affordable prices to the people.

He suggested the government switch to using electric vehicles to start with for reducing petrol consumption. Bhagawati Neupane is suspected of collusion between the government and the petroleum products dealers in the present context of the exorbitant hike in the fuel price.

Shekhar Kumar Singh admitted the spike in the price of petroleum products internationally and demanded relief packages for the farmers bearing the brunt of rising petroleum products prices.

Ganga Kumari Belbase underscored the need for the government to segregate the LPG gas cylinders for household use and industrial use at the earliest. She urged the government to consider factors such as colour, smell and shape of the cylinders while segregation.

She demanded an electric oven stove for each Nepali household free of cost once for and all. Bhairav Sundar Shrestha shared that the shortage of consumable goods was looming large lately in the country and expressed his displeasure over the delay on the part of market monitoring.

Urmila Aryal viewed that the government should hash out and introduce a plan to promote the usage of electric vehicles by imposing fewer customs tariffs. Responding to the queries of parliamentarians, Minister Badu shared that decision on providing separate LGP gas cylinders to impoverished households (those below the poverty line) was already made.

Such cylinders would be coloured separately and quantity would be determined as well. As for determining the price of such cylinders, he said that the government was sensitive. According to him, the Nepal Oil Corporation was delivering services at a subsidized rate irrespective of incurring a loss.